Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Google Inc has invested in two early stage venture capital funds, Seedfund and Erasmic, in India. These funds will identify, nurture and finance innovative startups, according to a release issued by Google.

"While the rush of large amounts of venture capital into India is well-documented, very little of this trickles down to small firms - the early-stage startups. Our effort is to build this gap by investing in these funds," said Samir Sood, head (corporate development - South Asia), Google. India is the first country where Google has made a limited partner investment in early stage funds. The company did not divulge the financial details.

According to him, these early infusions of capital provide an impetus for entrepreneurship in product engineering and will help enhance innovations that benefit consumer, Internet and mobile services. Google's investment strategy is to look at unique products, technologies and engineering teams that can provide innovative products to users or enhance existing services.